FOXBOROUGH – There's
going to be an endless amount of armchair coaching going on over the decision
to leave Rob Gronkowski in for an extra-point attempt Sunday, a play that ended with the tight end suffering a broken forearm that required surgery Monday.

Talking
heads will scream that you don't put a star player at risk when up 58-24 with
3:55 remaining. Others will rip New England's Bill Belichick for running up the
score on the Indianapolis Colts.

But
that thinking is shortsighted and wrong. So let's put a stop to this debate
now.

The
first point, the one about having Gronkowski in the game, will be made by
people who don't really
understand what they are saying and are just looking for something to rant about. Quick, when was the last time you saw backups
take the field for an extra point? Probably never.

Those are typically low-risk situations. The Patriots coaching staff would have to
make a conscious decision – such as inserting inexperienced players to
protect the kicker – to have any amount of serious danger enter the equation.

More on Gronk's injury

Let's
say Michael Hoomanawanui steps in for Gronkowski on that play, blows his
assignment and Stephen Gostkowski gets lit up and tears an ACL. Hysteria over Belichick's decision would flood the region.

That's
why Gronkowski was in the game. He was the best man for the job. It just went wrong.

People
on the other side of the argument will say the Patriots should have taken
their feet off the gas long before that play. There's potentially an argument
to be made there, but it wasn't like Belichick was trying to embarrass the
Colts.

Julian
Edelman returned a punt 49 yards to put New England on the Indy 39-yard line.
The Patriots ran seven plays – five runs and two passes – and shaved 3:42 off the
clock. At the end, New England found itself in the end zone.

The
Patriots had two drives of 80-plus yards that didn't take that amount of
time. It wasn't like Tom Brady was throwing the ball and trying to rip the
Colts' hearts out. The drive, overall, was rather humane.

Bottom
line: Gronkowski was on the field and the worst-case scenario happened.
Understandably, people are going to be upset he's likely sidelined 4-6 weeks, and they're looking for someone to blame.

But no
one is at fault here. What we should really be talking about is the impact of
the injury and what happens next.

If
Gronkowski heals quickly and comes back on the low side of that recovery estimate,
he'll miss games against the Jets, Miami, Houston and San Francisco. If he's on
the wrong end of the scale, he'll be back in time for the playoffs.

If that
happens, securing a first-round bye will become hugely
important. Gronkowski, at times, may not seem human, but even he'll need time to
work back into shape. It's unreasonable to expect him to cut off his cast, step
on the field and immediately be ready to go.

The bad
news is that earning a bye will become a huge task with Gronkowski sidelined.
All signs point toward Aaron Hernandez returning from an ankle injury Thursday
at New York, but there's only one Gronk.

Hernandez
can't replicate his blocking ability, and backups Visanthe Shiancoe, Daniel
Fells and Hoomanawanui can't match him there or as receivers. The
coaching staff is going to have to get creative, but something will be lost no
matter what they come up with.

And that's football. People get hurt. It's time for the next man to step up.